Thranduil huffily flounced through the forest. He'd show them. Oh, how he'd show them. He'd come through victorious! He'd kill them all! Or better yet, he'd set them against each other! So much for alliances. Not to mention, it was freezing and he missed his robe… It figures that his best robe would be the one to get ruined.

He very nearly shrieked when Sherlock Holmes dropped out of a nearby tree.

"Kill me."

Thranduil looked confused for a split second, before deciding he wasn't to be ordered around.

"No."

"Just end it." A stubborn one. Wonderful.

"Go away."

"This is getting horribly boring and I'd rather die then spend another day in this ridiculous competition."

"Go away."

Sherlock huffed, shooting the blasé Elvenking a glare. What didn't that elf understand?

"This is beneficial to you in every way! Ending my life will bring you one step closer to the finish line!" The detective was beginning to see he was getting nowhere.

"Go away."

What a spiteful, petulant monarch!

Sherlock wasn't stupid. If it was nearly any other of the contestants, Thranduil would be dead by now. However, the consulting detective was merely a human and matched against an otherworldly being, he knew he didn't stand a chance.

Might as well give up then. Rolling his eyes, the consulting detective stomped away, hands in his pockets.

oOo

"Remind me again why we got rid of the elf?"

"Silence, human," the Maiar snapped.

Tony lifted his hands. "Fine, fine. Quiet. Understood."

Melkor and Sauron simultaneously rolled their eyes. They trudged on in irritated silence for several minutes, before Tony piped up again.

"But seriously, why did we get rid of him? He could've been useful! I mean, we could've at least killed him!"

Sauron froze and slowly turned his head to face Stark, one fiery eye twitching.

"He was annoying and he drank too much." Melkor really loved interrupting his Lieutenant. He really did.

The Maiar and the human turned their heads to stare at the Vala. There was a brief standoff, before an unspoken agreement was made and they continued on their way.

"The same could be said about me…" Tony muttered under his breath.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, nothing! Just talking to myself."

Approximately fifteen minutes later, Glorfindel made an unexpected appearance.

Everybody froze.

"Wait… I know you…" Melkor squinted at the golden-haired elf.

At that moment, Glorfindel had never looked so frightened in his life, even that one time when he was faced with a fiery hell-beast Balrog.

"You killed my balrog."

Said killer of Balrog gulped.

"I'm a big fan!" At that statement, Melkor received many wide-eyed stares.

"E-excuse me?" Glorfindel was having a rather hard time breathing.

"Big fan!" Melkor waltzed over to the golden-haired warrior and slung an arm over his shoulder. "Love your hair too!"

"Master?" Sauron was, at this point, seriously considering the possibility that his employer had gone quite mad.

Glorfindel was thinking along the same lines, except he decided to take advantage of it. With a weak smile and a shaky laugh, he along an arm over Melkor's… well he couldn't quite reach the Valar's shoulder, so he just wrapped it around his waist. Awkwardly.

"Ahaha, well, you know… It wasn't anything much…" he mumbled, staunchly avoiding Sauron's disbelieving, infuriated gaze.

Melkor's answering laugh was loud and booming (Tony could've sworn he saw a few birds drop out of a nearby tree). "I like you! How about you join us? We could use a fighter!"

Before Glorfindel could open his mouth to reply, Sauron began to object loudly.

"No! No, no, no, no, NO!" Flames were starting to shoot up around him, and Tony quickly sidestepped a good twenty feet away as he harshly questioned his sanity.

"I'm done!" the Maiar shrieked, almost bursting into flames himself. "I'm done with you and your ridiculous plans! You're insane! You've lost sight of the goal! You're going to get us killed! You're fraternizing with the enemy!"

Melkor only blinked.

"You can stay here with your… your… your elf-buddy, I'm leaving!" Whirling on his heel, sparks flying in his wake, Sauron stormed out of the clearing.

Melkor shrugged, Glorfindel felt unbelievably awkward, and Tony was still harshly questioning his sanity.

"Come along, human!"

Tony jumped about a foot in the air, practically running after the Maiar.

"He's so excitable," Melkor sighed.

Glorfindel awkwardly had no regrets.

oOo

Two hours, a very long path of scorch marks, an angry Maiar, and one sweating, sanity-questioning Tony Stark later, they stumbled across a very odd sight. A small campfire, encircled by the odd human Wundy, the slightly less odd human Bruce Banner, and the reverse elf Spock. They seemed to be exchanging stories of some sort.

"The door slammed behind him, and he was faced with a horrific sight-"

All fell silent as the new arrivals were finally noticed.

"Um… Tony?"

Tony waved. "Hey Bruce."

Spock disinterestedly poked at the fire.

Several seconds of suspicious silence took place. Finally, Wundy mutely gestured to the fire.

The Maiar squinted, but accepted the invitation with a huff. Maybe he could incinerate all of them in the morning.

Poor Tom, however, was alone, in a bush, and having a horrible nightmare.

Flames, cackling elves, and a llama named Tina.

Horrifying.

He shot up, sweat dripping down his face, breathing heavily.

That was, by far, the worst dream he'd had yet. Glancing between the branches towards the horizon, he saw day breaking, and let out a shaky breath. Crawling out from his bush, he wearily trudged through the trees. As midmorning approached, Tom grew hungrier… Taking a deep breath, he froze. Was that.. food he smelled? Or was his mind merely conjuring it?

Very soon, the sound of voices followed. In that moment, Tom Hiddleston was instilled with both hope and fear.. It was a rather overwhelming mixture of emotions. After several moments of severe mental debating, Tom decided he was really too hungry to care whether or not he died in the quest for nourishment. He continued forward, and the voices became distinguishable.

"Just use your flamey-flame power and insta-cook these things. It'll save time." That sounded vaguely like… Robert? Tom assumed that must mean it was Tony Stark.

"Why should I do anything for you nasty humans? I don't even like those horrid meat-sticks." He really wasn't sure who that was, but he supposed they weren't very friendly.

"They're called sausages!"

"Whatever!"

"Guys… Can't we just, I don't know, get along?" Mark? No… Bruce! Tom decided that Bruce was the least likely to kill him and edged into the clearing just in time to see the other two yell a simultaneous;

"No!"

Bruce nearly jumped out of skin at the sudden appearance of the mildly horrified actor.

"Hey, I killed you!"

Tom started violently, his head whipping around to stare in fear at Tony. "N-no?"

The engineer squinted at the actor for moment, before laughing heartily.

"You're that other guy! Hiddly, was it? Thought you were Loki for a second there… Wouldn't put it past that sneaky bastard."

"Uh… Actually.."

"Anyways, welcome to the party!"

"Thanks?" The poor, normal British human was shaking in his shoes.

"Oh, not another one!" Tom's wide eyes shifted to a tall, huffy man who's hair was a little too long and little to orange…. yellow… red? … Uh…

"Stuff it, Volcano-boy," Tony said over his shoulder.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me."

To Tom's continued horror, flames started to seep out of the long-haired man's hands.

"Take it back!"

"Guys, guys…" Finally Banner interceded once again. "Let's calm down and eat."

"I refuse to touch those meat-sticks!" Sauron hissed.

"Then don't." Bruce was sure he'd never been more done with a person before.

After everybody (besides the snarling Maiar) had eaten, they continued moving about the arena. Sauron leading the way, occasionally throwing a fireball at the surrounding plant-life. Unfortunately, Sherlock Holmes happened to cross their paths. He barely had time to register what was happening, the poor man.

Sauron stiffened, the mere thought of one more human- besides the troupe behind him- sent him over the edge. A massive fireball was hurled straight at the consulting detective's head, and in mere seconds he was a pile of ash and bones.

Tom gasped, his hands over his mouth. Tony looked vaguely amused. Bruce looked… tired.

Sauron slowly turned, hissing something about 'the rest of you' and flounced away. The humans, however hesitant, decided they might as well follow him… for now (they were fully prepared to run at any given moment).

Meanwhile, Wundy returns from a tedious hunt for hydration, to find an empty camp.

"I swear. I go to get water, I'm gone for thirty minute, and those idiots up and leave… and eat my food. I see how I rate…" she muttered sourly. One lonely sausage remained, and she ate it as she contemplated her next actions. Eventually, she decided to follow the very obvious trail of scorch marks. That ought to lead her somewhere, no?

oOo

The familiar chime of the parachute was what woke Glorfindel from his slumber. His almost-shriek came out as more of a squeak, when he noticed that Melkor was practically sleeping on him. He didn't want to think about it, he really didn't, so he merely extracted himself, carefully, and crept towards the parachute. It held a weapon; an ax. Glorfindel took it carefully in hands, contemplating what he should do with it. His eyes drifted over to the Valar as the elf considered possibly removing his head. Just one problem… Melkor was no longer there. The ax was plucked out of the elf's hands, followed shortly by a curse and angry muttering. Glorfindel slowly turned, only to find that the Vala, lord of all that is evil, had misjudged the path of the ax from Glorfindel to himself, and was now injured. As it turned out, he had tried to flip it up in the air, and as it turns out, Melkor aka Morgoth aka The Dark One was not very good at flipping things, and the large gash in his upper arm was evidence to that.

oOo

Sometime during the night, Thranduil Orpherion fell prey to the dreaded hypothermia (the game-makers drastically decreasing the temperature in his area may or may not have assisted). The loss of his beloved robe, unfortunately, ended in tragedy… Namely, his death, occurring in the first hours of the morning. Let us have a moment of silence…

And now, onwards to our dearest Wundy, and her most recent companion, Spock… who had not, in fact, abandoned her like the others had. Not long after she had set out to take revenge on those who had so ungraciously abandoned her. As the sun crept below the horizon, and Spock kept the human amused with stories of Vulcan, two cracks of a cannon sounded through and two faces flashed across the sky:

Thranduil Orpherion- District 2

Sherlock Holmes- District 3

oOo

A/N: Hello hello! Long time, no see, eh? I'm afraid I must apologize once more… I owe you guys a bit of an explanation lol.

Long story short… my horse died, then my dad died, and now it's horse show season and the heat is making me not feel that great. This all results in a general lack of inspiration…

Anywho. I'm feeling the inspiration coming back, so I think I will be updating a bit more frequently.

A huge thank you to KkGgINoU and codename00guest for your lovely reviews ^-^

Overlord Rousdower out_